While Serbia still copes with his ruinous rule, diehards mark year since Milosevic died

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Admirers of late president Slobodan Milosevic marked the first anniversary of his death with wreaths and speeches on Saturday, even as Serbia continues to grapple with consequences of his ruinous rule.

Officials of the formerly Milosevic-led Socialist Party gathered at his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac, praising the man who led Serbia through several wars and ended up facing the U.N. war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague...

He died [March 11, 2006] just weeks before an expected end of his trial for alleged war crimes, including genocide...

As Milosevic's unrepentant supporters glorified the ex-president, [current President Boris] Tadic was busy dealing with one of the effects of his rule -- attending U.N.-mediated talks in Vienna, Austria, with the representatives of ethnic Albanian separatists from Kosovo, the southern province whose secession Milosevic tried to prevent with brutal force.